Portes Beach hotel — Hotel in Municipality of Nea Propontida

The short review - All in all, it's not a bad hotel and we don't regret booking it. I think it's pushing its 4* status and realistically it's more of a very good 3*.

The long review...

Rooms - There is a €70 room tax per room. Not the cleanest or highest standard of rooms but certainly not the worst we've seen either. A few stray hairs, bits of fluff and a dead bug or two on the floor when we checked in. A couple of spiders in the corner of the ceiling. Maybe the cleaning team don't get enough time to do a thorough job? Didn't have any issues with damp or a musty smell however, as you may have read in some reviews. Bedding was clean, our beds were firm (as mentioned in other reviews) but I quite liked that. We had family staying in another room and their bed was super soft, so I guess its just luck of the draw. The pillows were either too soft (just one) or two high (with two) but you can't please everyone when it comes to pillows! The rooms were big enough for four of us (2 adults and 2 kids) to move around and lay clothes out etc. Not a lot of hanging space if you're bringing smart clothes however. The air con unit looked brand new in our room and it was working perfectly, really appreciated being cooled down on an evening.

Bathroom - It was clean enough but we had issues with the towel rail being broken, the shower rail falling down, and the shower flooding the floor. Reception were prompt at fixing the issues when we raised them though.  The bathtubs are quite small and not really functional for either a bath, or a shower (they are over bath showers). The bathrooms are definitely the biggest let down in the room.

Ants and other wildlife - You may have read about ants in other reviews. Yes, there is a bit of an ants problem. When we arrived there was a deluge of tiny ants swarming around reception. It various places around the hotel ground there were groups of bigger ants. But, importantly and thankfully however, didn't see any near the pool, eating areas or in the rooms. Unfortunately we did have a few creepy crawly visitors in the room including a millipede , a few earwigs, couple of big moths. I suppose it comes with the territory though.

Food - I saw some reviews complaining about lack of variety and also not enough traditional Greek food. My response to both , is that isn't the case. Both plenty of variety and a lot of what I would consider Greek dishes on offer. What you wont get is a lot of variety of "British" dishes. However, there were some simple foods on offer at every meal including chips, pasta & sauce, bread etc. Desserts were not a strong point, very repetitive (really it was the same base cake on offer every night just decorated differently). You can help yourself at the pool bar to hotdogs, hamburgers and pizza slices. You can also help yourself to ice cream at the pool bar all day and theres a good selection of flavours. Generally, found the food relatively good quality for buffet/all inclusive food. We never went hungry.

Drinks (all inclusive) - Not a super varied menu of all inclusive drinks. You're not getting top shelf brands. But again, enough variety so there was something for everyone. There's three cocktails included on the all inclusive and the "San Fransico" can be made alcohol-free for the kids. Coffee is available at the pool bar all day.

Pools - The pool area was tiled, and nice and clean. There are two pools including the shallow splash pool with slides , and the bigger pool that is shallow enough at one side for little ones to stand up, and deeper at the other side to swim if you wish. Plenty of sunbeds , lots of space in the sun if you want it, and shaded seating areas. Not enough parasols but apparently some were broken in some recent bad weather so they may get replaced before high season.

Longer review available on...

Not recommended at all. We’ve been here for the first 9 days of July and we chose the all inclusive option. The food and beverage is horrible, extremely poor quality. If you want a proper coffee from the bar you have to pay extra (€3.50 for a single espresso!!!!) “All spritz, long variety of cocktails” this is what they say.. but they only offer 3 cocktails and the aperol spritz is extra charge (€8.50) The food was the worst part of this holiday. It’s horrible, very poorly cooked and zero quality. The continental breakfast doesn’t exist (no croissant at all, only one day they had mini croissant next to the American savoury breakfast), it’s mainly American breakfast which is not good either (the bacon undercooked, the ham is the worst quality you could ever find, bread also underbaked sometimes). Don’t expect to find typical Greek food. Dishes poorly washed as everything smells of eggs from the breakfast. The waiters rush you to eat and leave as they are constantly looking on your table and try to take the plates away even with food still in it. The WiFi doesn’t work at all in the room, only in the communal areas. Air co in the room very weak. There’s not enough sun beds on the beach side so you end up arguing with other people for the sit. People smoking on the kids pool and no one says anything! And on the beach as well, leaving cigarettes in the sand and no one from the hotel clean after it. The water in the kids pool is extremely cold. Not all the staff is friendly. And most of them don’t speak English so it’s very hard to communicate. The hotel is far from the villages so you can only book a taxi which are quite expensive. Positive note: they keep the place clean and tidy considering the amount of people. We won’t come back. EDIT AFTER THEIR RESPONSE: if making some boiled veggies and potato in broth with no salt for my 1 year old baby it means “serving a la cart menu for my family” well then there’s something wrong with your chefs. You are known as a FAMILY hotel, I have a 1 year old baby (and you knew it from our reservation) who doesn’t eat salt in food, who needs to have at least two healthy snacks per day. You only provided junk food as snacks on the pool in the afternoon, I couldn’t give that to my little one. The reason why we were asking for yogurt and fruit out the working chefs hours is that the fridge in our room wasn’t cold at all to keep food in it. I’ve mentioned that to reception and I’ve said “if it can be fixed I can keep yogurt and fruit from the breakfast so I don’t bother you in the afternoon for the snacks”, maintenance came over but nothing was done. Sorry but if you’re a family hotel you will need to do anything to accommodate your guests, including the very little one. I can see from other reviews I’m not the only one complaining about the quality of food, and the water being cold in the kids pool. Also, on our first day I have been called with inappropriate words from another customer because of the sunbeds on the beach, and the only thing the manager could do was offering us fruit (the same on the buffet) and a cheap bottle of wine.

I can see you didn’t appreciate my review, because you know it’s just the truth of what reality is at your hotel. But don’t worry, we will never ever...

Just back from 10 days here. Upon reading reviews we didn’t have high expectations but we were pleasantly surprised. The hotel has a lovely reception area. Staff are welcoming. The food is like an all you can eat buffet, the salad is 👌 it’s all very random so you have a big plate of random food but it all tastes very nice and cooked well and plenty of it. Coke. Lemonade, juices wine and lager on tap so you never are left wanting. Room is clean and a good size. 5 of us in one room and it was sound for us. Cleaners did a good job cleaning every day. Pools did the job but need updating. Loose tiles. The slabs around the pools is a big accident waiting to happen. Saw someone slip and fall every day. The beach is terrible. Mainly shingle. Didn’t spend one day on the beach. But the sea is lovely when you get in. There is nothing around the hotel that you can walk to which was the biggest let down. The best place was a 30 euro taxi away. Really nice there but paying 60 euro a night In taxi’s Isn’t doable. The weather was great! Overall we had a really nice time. We wouldn’t come back but it did the job.

Now this part is for all the parents out there!! We went on a big family holiday. 9 of us. 3 of them young Children ages 2,5 & 7. 6 adults combined watching my children, at the kids pool most of the kids make friends with each other. We always keep a close eye on our children anyway and they’re never left alone. We are British and our children made friends with the other English/welsh kids at the pool. An 8 year old English boy attempted to take our 5 year old son into the public toilets because “he wanted to see his bits and his bum” he tried this twice! He was Brazen enough to ask my sons mother if he could take our son to the toilet because “my sons hands were dirty and he was going to wash them” This Little nonce also told another child from another family that he likes looking at naked children. All the parents at the pool had concerns about this child but we didn’t expect this to happen! It’s only a blessing we always keep an eye on our kids and my wife told this boy no. It came as a massive shock when our son told us the real reason this boy called Harrison was trying to take him to the toilets. We were sickened by this. So Parents please keep your children safe.

What’s made this worse is I went to reception to talk to the manager but they weren’t there! The receptionist hasn’t passed on the message to the manager and after a week being back in England and phone calls to the hotel there has still been no reply!! For a hotel which caters to families this is a disgrace! Our priority is to keep our children as safe as possible when we take them on holiday! This child was a risk to every other young child at the pool but the hotel did nothing.

I’m writing this review to remind parents. It’s not just adults that can harm your kids. We would never expect an 8 year to potentially be the biggest risk to our children! So parents trust your gut and keep your...